TheCC Staff
06-09-2008, 06:44 PM
It Was All Just A Dream… And a Waste of Time
by Alan Noah (http://alannoah.com)
June 9th, 2008 - I hate Super Mario Brothers 2. Here's a quick recap of why this game is the oddball of the Super Mario franchise, for anyone who didn't know: The game was originally a weird Japanese title that was repurposed as a Mario sequel when Nintendo execs decided that the true sequel to Super Mario Bros. would be too hard for American gamers. The Lost Levels, as they came to be known, were certainly challenging, but they felt like you were playing in the same Mario universe that you knew and loved, mainly because you were. (If you never played the games on the SNES Super Mario All-Stars, I strongly recommend you check it out by way of the Wii's Virtual Console.)
But what is so bad about the Super Mario 2 we got stateside? It was all a dream. After 20 levels of throwing vegetables at bad guys in masks, hitting weirdly androgynous birds with their own eggs, and wondering what is up with Luigi's legs, you defeat Wart, only to see that the whole thing happened in Mario's mind. None of it really happened. For a 9 year-old kid, realizing all of that hard work I put in was for nothing was, well, traumatizing.
Now I know whats going through your mind, because this is an argument I've had a few times before. So allow me to present the three main counterpoints to my ridiculously nerdy rant, along with my rebuttals.
Counterpoint #1: Um, you do realize that none of the other Mario games "really" happened, right?
My Rebuttal: Of course I do. Yet all of the other adventures that Super Mario has been on were real to Mario. In his universe, he is always rescuing Peach from Bowser. He lives in the Mushroom Kingdom, goes on vacation to Dinosaur Land and Isle Delfino, and has even ventured into outer space. But the land of "Sub-Con" (which is a pretty big clue that all was not kosher in this game) exists outside of Super Mario canon.
Click Here To Read The Rest Of The Article (http://thecomiccollective.com/Video_Games/Columns/2008/Alan_Noah/Mario_2_Rant/index.php)
by Alan Noah (http://alannoah.com)
June 9th, 2008 - I hate Super Mario Brothers 2. Here's a quick recap of why this game is the oddball of the Super Mario franchise, for anyone who didn't know: The game was originally a weird Japanese title that was repurposed as a Mario sequel when Nintendo execs decided that the true sequel to Super Mario Bros. would be too hard for American gamers. The Lost Levels, as they came to be known, were certainly challenging, but they felt like you were playing in the same Mario universe that you knew and loved, mainly because you were. (If you never played the games on the SNES Super Mario All-Stars, I strongly recommend you check it out by way of the Wii's Virtual Console.)
But what is so bad about the Super Mario 2 we got stateside? It was all a dream. After 20 levels of throwing vegetables at bad guys in masks, hitting weirdly androgynous birds with their own eggs, and wondering what is up with Luigi's legs, you defeat Wart, only to see that the whole thing happened in Mario's mind. None of it really happened. For a 9 year-old kid, realizing all of that hard work I put in was for nothing was, well, traumatizing.
Now I know whats going through your mind, because this is an argument I've had a few times before. So allow me to present the three main counterpoints to my ridiculously nerdy rant, along with my rebuttals.
Counterpoint #1: Um, you do realize that none of the other Mario games "really" happened, right?
My Rebuttal: Of course I do. Yet all of the other adventures that Super Mario has been on were real to Mario. In his universe, he is always rescuing Peach from Bowser. He lives in the Mushroom Kingdom, goes on vacation to Dinosaur Land and Isle Delfino, and has even ventured into outer space. But the land of "Sub-Con" (which is a pretty big clue that all was not kosher in this game) exists outside of Super Mario canon.
Click Here To Read The Rest Of The Article (http://thecomiccollective.com/Video_Games/Columns/2008/Alan_Noah/Mario_2_Rant/index.php)